on 13 April 2007
Roger Fawcett-Tang, also known as half of Struktur Design, has not only collated this anthology of type-led projects but also designed the book, and he’s made a good job all round. You get nearly 200 pages of contemporary work thoughtfully selected and arranged, most of it decent and with enough pieces of really stunning quality to balance the inevitable few stinkers, plus a concise history of type and an intro to each chapter by type boffin David Jury. At £25 it’s not massively cheap by today’s coffee-table-book-as-commodity standards, but well worth it.
Our only niggle is with the captions, which offer a bare minimum of information – many of the typefaces used go unidentified, which is more than a little annoying – and no critical commentary. While outlining the merits for which each piece was selected, Fawcett-Tang steadfastly refuses to pass judgement. This becomes especially noticeable in a few cases where the featured work, while interesting, has obvious flaws.
Nothing is said of a truly horrid typeface adopted by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science – which, of all organisations, ought to have the best type in the world – except that ‘[this] small book demonstrates how well it works as a text face’. Not very well, in fact, even when reproduced small enough to hide its ugly curves, and especially when set by someone who thinks it’s OK to leave a hyphen followed by a widow on the same page as a right rag that unwittingly forms such a perfect parabola you could probably receive Sky on it.
Jury’s essays, however, could never be accused of reticence. As a writer, it’s awkward to criticise this kind of stuff: people keep making spaces in books and magazines and asking us to fill them, and naturally we oblige. So it’s not without a spirit of solidarity that I wonder what the bleeding Nora some of this is supposed to be about. ‘Cities can be exhilarating, demanding and noisy.’ And bears, David? Remind us what they do in those woods?
‘This sensory cacophony can be alluring and commercial enterprises recognise this. The variety and scale of letters attached to buildings can transform them into abstract images which invite discretion to be abandoned.’ Oh lordy, it’s like a local authority application for grant funding written by Baudrillard.
One of the uses to which the book can and should be put, although again it’s mute on the subject itself, is spotting ideas that are getting over-used. A magazine cover is praised for its juxtaposition of a calligraphically embellished blackletter with urban images, but this has been a music and fashion industry trend for years. And if you find yourself using diagonal lines, especially if they’re yellow: stop right there and take a break. Walk around a little. Take a deep breath. Yes, 1998 was a happy time for all of us in graphic design, but we have to move on.
On the other hand, we discover that twirly-whirly silhouetted foliage ornamentation, even though it really has been done to death now, is still looking fabulous and stimulating fresh ideas. And Fawcett-Tang may have launched this year’s bandwagon by showing several excellent pieces from Oded Ezer. Look out: Hebrew is the new Japanese.
adambanksdotcom Apple founder @ronaldgwayne has had several careers; on this showing, tech policy punditry could be a keeper
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Thank you for this review, brightened up my day.